


It's a bad trip

by FanFicReader01



Category: Poets of the Fall
Genre: Dreams, Duality, Horror, Mindfuck, Mirrors, Nightmares, Violence, bad trip, illusion, locking up the sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-09-26 03:09:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 20,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9859439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicReader01/pseuds/FanFicReader01
Summary: It's like being thrown into a nightmare. To see yourself stand in front of you. And the other you is laughing at your face and you can't do a goddamn thing about it.Luckily, one is not alone.Very slightly based off/inspired by Locking up the Sun





	1. Broken mirror

Olli was backstage. He was in the restroom to clean himself up after the gig had ended.

He yawned. Only now did he feel how tired he really was. He was studying his face. There was some sweat on his forehead and his eyes reflected his exhaustion. Maybe he should eat a sandwich or something to regain some strenght.

Just as the guitarist was about to leave the bathroom, he heard a chuckle. The chuckle grew louder as he approached the door. Annoyed, the man looked behind him. No one to be seen. Nothing.

 ‘Come closer’, a strange voice whispered. The voice was strange, yet familiar at the same time.

Olli blinked a few times. Was he going mad? Was he _that_ tired?

 

The guitarist walked back to the mirror and stared at himself. Nothing special. Nothing strange.

He decided to wash his face one more time. The cool water felt refreshing against his warm cheeks.

When he looked back at the mirror, he saw himself obviously. But his reflection was grinning. Olli himself didn’t grin.

While Olli shook his head, his reflection remained stoic. The grin now grew bigger. The confused guitarist widened his eyes. Finally his reflection mirrored him. But the reflection’s eyes got darker.

Black tears were rolling out of those black orbs. No, those weren’t tears. It seemed to be oil. Or thick, black mud.

Olli jumped back as his mirror self now laughed at him.

‘Are you scared, boy? You shouldn’t be. It’s me. It’s you!’, mirror Olli’s voice sounded deep.

The blond guitarist dared to approach the mirror again.

  ‘This isn’t happening’, he stammered.

He gasped when his reflection suddenly reached for the guitarist, _grabbing_ him by his collar.

 ‘This _is_ happening. _No one_ can escape here! No one can escape from _me_!’, mirror Olli shouted.

 

‘Olli?’, finally a familiar voice interrupted Olli’s surreal encounter. It was the bassist of the band.

‘Jani? What’s up?’, the guitarist tried to sound normal but Jani looked concerned.

‘You look very tired. Are you alright? You can rest on the couch, y’know’, Jani said. Olli nodded.

 ‘I’m fine. Thanks anyway’, he wanted to leave the restroom but the bassist stopped him.

Olli wanted to ask what was going on, but Jani placed his hand against the guitarist’s cheek. He then brushed his thumbs over Olli’s cheek.

 ‘You got some dirt there’, Jani grinned.

When Olli stared at the bassist’s fingers, they were black of the strange mud.


	2. Lights out

Marko was standing on the podium. The fans were cheering and shouting.

Behind him, his bandmates were playing their instruments. He was singing. Just like every gig.

But suddenly, Marko felt his voice crack. His throat felt sore. Words didn’t come out smoothly.

Soon Saaresto couldn’t sing nor speak anymore. The fans kept applauding however. The other bandmembers kept playing. Marko felt like he got frozen in time while the rest of the world went on without him, not aware of his condition. And if that wasn’t bizarre enough, suddenly the lights went out and the singer was left in complete darkness.

 Just as he started to get used to that blackness, one light lit up again.

The light only shone on him. Marko was the only one left. His friends had vanished, just like the crowd in front of him.

Instead of just an empty floor, there were chairs in front of the stage.

Marko heard someone clapping. His eyes wandered over the countless chairs (when did they get there?) until he spotted the dark figure sitting on the front row.

 ‘How are you doing? Now that there’s nobody here to notice you? No one who listens to you?’, the mysterious man finally spoke up.

Marko tried to say something, but his voice was still lost. The other man stood up from his chair and stalked towards the podium.

 The singer saw that the stranger wore a mask. A _jester_ mask to be correctly. _His_ mask: the one he wore for the Daze video clip.

The masked man giggled. ‘Are you surprised, Marko?’ The singer carefully nodded. He couldn’t move.

Who was this other man? Why was he here? Where was everybody else?

 

The masked man jumped onto the stage and circled around Saaresto like a predator.

‘You probably think: who the fuck am I? Maybe you’ll recognize me when I remove this stupid mask’, the man snorted as he threw the mask on the ground.

Marko cringed when he saw the beautiful mask shattered in a hundred pieces.

The other man finally faced Saaresto and the singer’s face went pale.

 

It was Hamartia. It was Jeremiah. It was him. Something in between.

The man’s face was deformed. It _glitched_. Switching from different personas. Marko’s “alter ego’s”.

 ‘What do you want from me?’, Marko found his voice back. He was frightened.

The glitchy man now raised one hand. He stretched his arm and pressed his hand violently against Marko’s face.  
 ‘I want your face. To add it to my collection!’, the creep almost howled.

 

Marko screamed as he awoke in sweat. The singer took in his surroundings.

He sighed in relief. He was in the tour bus. In front of him sat Jaska. He was sleeping peacefully.

The singer mumbled something to himself and tried to calm his heartbeat. Luckily he didn’t wake his friends because of his silly dream. Because that’s what it was. Just a dream.

A horrible nightmare, nothing more.


	3. Too loud

Jari was the first one to arrive in the studio. He had to check the drum kit: to check if it was still there, if it still looked normal. The drums were standing in the corner of the room, like usual.

Jari sighed in relief. He wasn’t going mad after all. Carefully he inspected each of the drums.

Eventually he sat behind the set and started to play familiar tunes. Everything sounded okay. No faces, no voices. Just the ever soothing sound of the beats he created.

 The drummer got startled when he _did_ hear voices coming from the hall.

Again a sigh of relief when he recognized those voices to be Kapu and Marko’s.

 

‘Already busy?’ Marko appeared around the corner with a smile on his face. He held out a bag and declared: ‘Bought us some sandwiches. It’s going to be a long day.’

Jari smiled at the singer and fiddled around with his drum sticks. ‘Nice.’

 ‘Hey, Jari, you’re up!’, Kapu said surprised when he entered the room. The drummer nodded.

‘Yep, I could hardly wait to start!’, the younger man grinned but behind that grin laid some fear.

Markus noticed. ‘You look tired. Is something wrong? Did you get enough sleep?’

Jari nodded. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Just had an annoying dream.’

An annoying dream would be an understatement. Jari had the worst dream, no _nightmare_ , he had ever experienced in his life.

 

Jari wore a prison outfit of the Lift video. Yet he wasn’t the young boy from when they shot that video. Another thing t felt out of place and that was the place itself.

The drummer found himself in some sort of cell.  The walls were cold and somber. The only thing he recognized was his own drum set. While Jari was still trying to understand what happened to him, a voice coming from a loudspeaker, started to talk.

 ‘You there! That’s right, the man in the orange suit. The man with the glasses! I’m talking to you!’

‘Me?’, Jari felt stupid. Of course the voice was talking to him: there was no one else in the place.

 ‘Yes you! How about you make some use of those drums in front of you! I’m sure you can play something!’, the voice sounded commanding, even threatening. It also spoke with a patronizing tone.

Jari didn’t think twice before getting himself ready. He had no idea what to play so he decided to play one of their more recent songs.

 

The sound of the drums started to sound twisted and way too loud after a while.

 ‘Keep playing’, the threatening voice shouted when Jari wanted to stop.

The drummer didn’t want to, but he was too afraid of what would happen if he refused. So he kept playing until he swore his ears were bleeding. Suddenly he heard mad laughter. Where was it coming from?

The musician looked around him but he saw nothing.

His eyes returned to his drum kit. Faces. _Their_ faces. They seemed to be engraved into the drums.

Marko, Olli, Jani, Kapu and Jaska. The musicians were staring at him. Even laughing. Their eyes were blackened and hollow.

 Hands came out of the trap set and pointed at the youngest bandmember in a judging way.

Jari hit them as hard as he could with his drum sticks, but it didn’t affect the hands or the laughs.

Eventually the poor man fell on his knees in despair. He gave up. The laughing only grew louder.

He screamed.

Soon he found himself swallowed in the hellish shadows of those who he used to call bandmates.


	4. Too attached

Was someone in his room? It felt like someone or _something_ was sitting on the man’s chest.

He found it difficult to breath. He could hardly open his eyes. Even if he did, the bedroom was darkened.

When the keyboardist finally found some strength, his hand reached for his nightlamp. The bright light blinded him for a bit, but he wasn’t in the dark anymore.

Markus observed his fingers. They were trembling. He was sweating. One hand rubbed over his head as he still couldn’t believe what he had dreamt.

He moved with his fingers to confirm he was no longer dreaming.

 

Kapu had just settled behind his piano, when one of his friends walked in. It was the blond guitarist.

They exchanged smiles and Olli went to sit on one of the beanbags.

 ‘So, what’s it gonna be today?’, the man asked.

‘We could play anything, really. But I was having this new tune in my head. Wanna hear it?’, Kapu replied. The other man nodded.

 ‘Sure.’

Markus placed his fingers on the right chords and started to play. Soon, the guitarist tried to mimic the sound with his guitar.

All of a sudden Olli’s guitar made a disturbing sound. When Markus looked up from his piano, the other man had stopped playing his instrument. He had stood up and walked over to Markus.

He patted the taller man with both hands on his shoulders and stood behind him. Something didn’t feel right. Normally Kapu didn’t mind when other bandmembers were standing next to him, but this time was different. It was like Olli’s whole posture had changed. He felt _intimidating_.

 ‘What is it, Kapu? Something wrong?’, the blond man gave the keyboardist a questioning look.

Markus shook his head. ‘No, no.’

 ‘Well then, keep on playing? I like it’, Olli remarked but his voice sounded commanding.

The man finally left Kapu alone and disappeared behind the corner.

 

The keyboardist eventually got lost in his own music until he felt someone standing behind him.

He quickly looked behind him and saw it was the guitarist. When did he enter this room again?

‘That’s a nice tune you’re playing’, Olli remarked. His voice sounded off. Just like his guitar before he left Kapu alone in the room.

 The guitarist’s hand was now resting on the bald man’s shoulder. Markus flinched when he felt Olli’s grip tighten. Like a claw.

 The other man said something but Markus couldn’t make anything of it. He felt like the guitarist was possessed or something. He wasn’t brave enough to face the other man but he gave a quick glance at their reflection.

Kapu’s breathing got faster. Olli wasn’t Olli anymore. Black fluids were dripping out of his eyes. He had a crooked grin plastered on his otherwise stoic face.

Only now did he notice how his own fingers pressed painfully into the keys. And he was _stuck_. His fingers seemed to be glued to the darn piano. The black keys had “extended” and gripped onto Kapu’s hand.

Like the piano was trying to consume him.

Suddenly the room started to leak black oil from the walls. When the musician finally dared to look over his back, Olli had dissolved into mud and that black fluid. Soon there would be nothing left of this room but blackness. Suffocating blackness.

 


	5. Underneath the skin

The guitarist woke up in an unfamiliar bed. He was surrounded by unfamiliar walls. He wondered where he was. He shouted but there came no response.

First Jaska thought he was in a hospital room but the room was simply too small. Suddenly he thought the walls were a bit too close for his likings. When the guitarist studied his own state, he saw both arms were bandaged. There was still some bleed seeping through the white.

 When did he get hurt?

The man tried to get out of his bed but something kept him from doing so. He got rid of the blanket and in shock he saw that he was strapped to the bed. And his legs, they were missing. Only two stumps remained. Sweat started to form on Jaska’s worried head.

 What the fuck happened to him? Why was no one around? Where were his friends?

The confused musician got startled when the door creaked open.

A seemingly young woman walked over to his bed. She was probably a nurse, given the attires she wore. She had a clipboard in one hand, a mug in the other.

 ‘Good morning, mister Mäkinen’, she smiled.

‘You’re the nurse right? Could you please tell me what happened? And where am I?’, Jaska asked her.

‘You got into a nasty fight with another inmate. You have to be glad you’re still alive. You’ve been in some sort of comatose state for almost two weeks now’, the woman replied while she made some notes.

She did some checkups on the guitarist before leaving.

 ‘Inmate? What? Am I in prison?’, Jaska exclaimed. The woman nodded coldly and left him alone.

Already tired, Jaska fell back on his mattress and stared at the dark ceiling. The light was weak and now he started to smell something pungent.  It made him feel sick.

 Carefully he touched one of his arms. It itched.

‘Since when did I get in jail?’, he mumbled to himself.

 

No one visited him anymore and Jaska started to worry that the other staff members might’ve forgotten about him.

 ‘Hello? Anyone here? I, eh, I think I need to pee!’, Jaska shouted. He didn’t really need to pee, but maybe then someone would check up on him.

After more failed attempts of getting noticed, the wounded man heard a strange voice.

 ‘We are here, Jaska!’

‘Wait, wha-?’, the guitarist looked around him but didn’t see anybody. He flinched at a sudden ache in his right arm. He grabbed the upper arm in a reflex to calm down the pain. It didn’t help.

 ‘Stop doing that!’, the strange voice hissed. Jaska swore he could feel something _move_ underneath those bandages.

Frightened he let go of his own arm and then he had to blink a few times. The bandage had formed some kind of mouth. The mouth started to talk:  ‘Thank, God! You almost choked me!’

 ‘You aren’t real, are you? Am I hallucinating?’, the guitarist exclaimed.

The bandage laughed at him. ‘No, I am real. Now would you kindly unwrap me?’

Jaska, literally strapped to his bed, couldn’t react. It was like he was also frozen. Then another terrifying thing happened: the man’s left arm started to move on its own.

 ‘C’mon, you can do it’, the bandage insisted.

When Jaska got the control over his left arm back, he started to unwrap his right upper arm.

He was still bleeding. And now he saw that his tattoo had come to life. The thick koi fish came partly out of his arm. Where the fish left a “hole”, there was some blood. Jaska felt nauseous looking at it.

 How did this happen?

‘What is it, Jaska? Are you not happy to see me alive and well?’, the koi snorted. ‘Now that I’m free, go help my friend on your other side!’, the fish moved one of its fins in a way of gesturing.

Jaska, too afraid to disobey, did as he was told by a freaking fish.

He almost didn’t dare to look what was under his other bandage. The guitarist had hardly removed all the bandages, when the tattoos underneath were moving already.

The dragon and the tiger were fighting. Every hit one animal took, was felt by Jaska too.

 ‘Can you please stop? Just stop!’, the man shouted.

The animals cackled and suddenly the dragon disappeared into the guitarist’s arm. He felt him crawling underneath his skin, to his shoulder and then he reached the man’s chest.

Jaska’s heartbeat was incredibly fast and he was surprised he didn’t have a heart attack yet.

 The dragon burst out of the man’s chest and looked him straight in the eyes.

‘Just what are you doing with your life?’ the dragon made a hissing noise as he tried to hypnotize the poor guitarist.

 ‘I have no idea what’s happening, but you don’t have the right to judge me’, Jaska shouted back.

‘How annoying’, the tiger growled. He climbed now out of his containment that was the man’s arm. He went to sit on Jaska’s shoulder. One of claws brushed Jaska’s face and left a small scratch.

 ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’, the man snorted and then he slapped the animal off his shoulder. He was getting really frustrated now.

 When the tiger hit the blankets, only splattered ink dirtied the white sheets.

‘How aggressive’, the koi fish stated and jumped around Jaska’s skin as if it was water. The movement itched.

 The dragon opened its mouth and tried to attack the man. Jaska screamed.

 

Jaska screamed again when he opened his eyes. Marko was looking at him.

 ‘Jaska? Are you alright?’, Marko asked with a very concerned look on his face.

The guitarist mumbled something and shook his head. He stared out of the window of their tour bus.

‘I had a nightmare. It’s nothing, really’, the man replied. But he still felt an itch in both arms, also his legs were tingling.

 ‘Well, you must’ve had a horrible one. Otherwise you wouldn’t shout like that. And here I thought you were having a peaceful sleep’, Marko commented.

Jaska observed his friend. He seemed tired too.

‘Yeah, it was horrible’, Jaska looked at one of his tattoos and scratched it a bit. Then he looked back at the singer and asked: ‘What about you, Marko? Haven’t slept? You look weary.’

Marko nodded. ‘Yes, had a nightmare too. Would you like to sit and sleep next to me?’

 ‘Of course’, Jaska answered as he stood up from his own chair to go and sit next to Marko.

The guitarist sighed and said: ‘Hopefully we’ll get some _good_ sleep for now.’

Marko hummed and rested his head against the guitarist’s shoulder.


	6. Endless loop

The day after he had encountered a rather tired and fatigued lead guitarist at the restroom, Jani had been sleeping bad. Maybe it was because he was worrying about the wellbeing of his friend. Maybe it was because he was having these weird dreams. And even though he knew he was dreaming, he couldn’t escape the nightmares.

 

Jani was standing in the middle of a large pasture that appeared to have no end, nor a beginning.

There were flowers everywhere in a wide variety of colors and sorts.

The bassist felt like he was in some hallucinating painting from which he couldn’t escape. The only thing he possessed, was his trustworthy camera.

While there was nothing else he could do, Jani always decided to take pictures of the environment. A few panorama pictures here, a close-up from a flower there. After the photographer had taken quite some photos, he magically got teleported to a very crowded square.

The people walking didn’t notice him or just ignored him. Once again, the bassist made photos. This time around, the results were horrifying.

Through the eye of his camera, everything seemed normal until he looked at the photos which got displayed on the little screen.

 The people, they had transformed. Their eyes were pure black or a threatening white with a dead look.

Some faces had been distorted.

 Jani swore this is what hell looked like. Whenever he tried to delete those cursed pictures, it didn’t work.

 He was trying to remove the photos from his folder like a madman. The world around him became greyer and greyer.

Rain started to fall from the skies. Some people just vanished from the square. Others transformed into the demons Jani had captured on his camera.

Then he looked at his own reflection in a puddle of water. He was becoming inhumane too.

So he started to run and run and run. He pushed some people aside and eventually he got back at the pasture. Sun warmed his cold face and the dream repeated itself. Whether he liked it or not.


	7. The nightmares we live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After 5 months of not writing a single word for this fic, it finally continues xD  
> Let's see for how long

Two weeks had passed and all bandmembers looked exhausted when they entered the studio in the early morning of Monday.

 ‘Guys, I’ve been thinking. Truth to be said: everyone looks like shit at the moment’, Marko started when everyone had gathered in the practice room.

 ‘Can’t deny that’, Jaska grunted, subconsciously rubbing over his tattoos.

Jari scratched through his hair as he stared suspiscously at his drumkit in the corner. Olli, who sat next to him nodded. The bassist yawned and Markus coughed.

 Then he said: ‘So what do you think?’

‘I think we should take a good rest. All of us’, Marko decided. The rest agreed with their lead singer.

 ‘You’re right. I’ve been having nightmares lately’, Olli muttered. ‘It makes me paranoia of mirrors. I know it sounds silly.’

 ‘It’s okay, Olli. I have had my share of nightmares too the last few days’, the other guitarist reassured his friend.

 ‘Same here’, Jani raised his hand.

‘Is everyone here having bad dreams or what?’, Jari exclaimed surprised. Part of him was happy he wasn’t the only one. Part of him felt of course bad for his bandmates.

 ‘I feel something strange is going on’, Kapu murmured as his fingertips got pressed against each other.

‘You mean something… supernatural?’, Marko guessed and the keyboardist nodded.

 ‘Yes. Isn’t it strange that we _all_ have nightmares?’, Kapu wondered.

‘What’s going on here?’, Jaska huffed.

 ‘I think we’ve worked too much the last couple of days. Marko is right, we should take a week off or something’, Jani said.

 

And so the band decided to take two weeks off from their duties so they could have some rest and think things through.


	8. Welcome to Nightmare Town

The bandmembers were driving through the woods to their destination.

‘It’s good to have you guys with me during the night’, Kapu expressed his relief.

‘Yeah. Now we don’t have to sleep alone at home’, Jari shivered by the thought alone. He was reading the map and looked at the places they’ve been at already. Then his eyes remained focused on one particular place.

He wanted to grab his phone but found out he had forgotten it at home.

 ‘Shit, Jani, could I borrow your phone real quick?’, the drummer asked his bandmate who was sitting next to him.

‘Yeah, sure. You forgot yours?’, Jani took out his mobile and gave it to Jari.

The younger man nodded. ‘Yep.’

 

‘Guys, you won’t believe this!’, Jari’s eyes didn'tt blink when he read the article on Jani’s phone.

‘What is it?’, Markus wanted to know. The other bandmembers were also focused on their drummer.

‘You guys remember that time we spent one night in that old, creepy village?’, Jari asked his friends.

‘That town we “stranded on” during the storm?’, Marko tried to recall.

‘Ah, the town during our most recent tour’, Jaska remembered now.

 ‘Yes, that one! It’s said to be an actual ghost town’, Jari exclaimed, almost too excited.

‘Wait, what?’, Olli blinked his eyes quickly in disbelief.

 ‘Now that explains why no one opened the door for us’, the bassist snorted. ‘Still, it looked like everyone was just inside not, well… gone.’

 ‘And how does that explain the nightmares?’, Marko asked the drummer.

‘It’s said to give people bad vibes. Like that town’s cursed and its grudge gets unleashed on everyone who passes that town’, Jari informed the rest. 'The way it affects people also depends on the current state of the affected people.'

 ‘So we’re fucked?’, Kapu stated worried but the youngest bandmember shook his head.

‘No. We can still save ourselves. But that means we need to go back to that town!’

 ‘Sounds easier said than done’, Jani argued.

‘But it seems to be our only way to deal with the nightmares. And believe me, you don’t want to have those nightmares forever. It will eat you up mentally’, Jaska warned the bassist, thinking about his own bad experiences.

 The bassist gulped when he recalled his own memories.

‘How can we get rid of those nightmares then?’, he wanted to know. It got silent in their bus. No one seemed to have a solution yet but then Marko appeared to have an idea.

 ‘Lucid dreams. It could be our way out!’, Marko exclaimed.

‘You mean we need to be aware of our dream so we can change it?’, Olli tried to understand what the singer was saying.

 Marko nodded heavily in reply.

‘We can do this, guys, together’, he encouraged his friends and fellow bandmembers.


	9. Shatter the mirrors

After the first week had passed, the band finally arrived at the ghost town. Thick mist surrounded every building.

 ‘Only looking at this place gives me the creeps’, Olli shuddered. ‘Are we going outside, though?’

‘No. We stay safely inside’, Markus replied.

When the night fell, the guys readied themselves to sleep but they would switch with keeping watch on the dreamer.

 

‘You’re ready, Olli?’, Marko asked concerned. The blond guitarist sighed and shrug his shoulders.

Jani stood next to Olli and patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.

‘You can do it’, he said.

‘I hope so. Every time I have an encounter with him, I hardly make it out alive. I never know what to do’, Olli huffed.

 ‘But this time you’re not alone. We’re with you tonight’, Jari assured his friend.

‘That’s right. We might not be able to appear in the dream, but we’re here with you in the _real physical_ world’, Kapu smiled at the lead guitarist.

Jaska then joined the conversation too and promised: ‘When we see you’re not ready for him, we’ll wake you up no matter what. If it gets too intense _I_ will free you.’

 ‘Thanks, everybody’, Olli tried to smile but he was still afraid when he laid down.

‘Dream well. You can do it. You’re stronger than your imposters’, Marko gave his final encouragement before their guitarist closed his eyes.

 

 

‘Wake up, Olli. Wake up’, a soft voice mused in the guitarist’s ear. When the man didn’t wake up immediately, the voice started to sound impatient and it raised its voice.

 ‘Wake up!’

‘No, not yet’, Olli protested sleepily.

‘Wake the fuck up, you idiot!’, the voice now literally screamed into the musician’s ear.

Alerted Olli jumped up. The bus was dark and Olli could hardly see anything. When his eyes got more used to the darkness around him, he could see some figures in the end of the bus.

 The figures are saying something.

From what Olli could understand, they were calling his name.

 ‘M- Markus? Jari? Jani? Marko? Jaska?’, he asked hesitatingly.

‘Yes, it’s us! Come help us!’, they shouted at him and Olli tried to reach them but suddenly he heard the ugly noise of the bus _cracking_.

 ‘You won’t be able to safe them, Olli. No matter how hard you try’, the stranger’s voice rang in the blond musician’s ears.

 Olli hardly dared to look into the window but he did it anyway. Every window he stared at, had become a large mirror and in those mirrors he saw _him_. His evil clone.

He sood there mockingly and twitched his head. Evil Olli’s eyes were black like ever with dark mud dripping out of them.

 ‘Y- you’re not real! You’re not me!’, Olli stammered, feeling his hopeful feeling leave his mind as he stared into those black holes. He feared those eyes might consume him if he looked too deep into them.

 ‘But I _am_ you, silly! I’m everything you fear, everything you hate!’, the evil clone chuckled. Olli tried to distance himself from the windows but evil Olli now stepped out of one them.

Even though he had the exact same height as the real Olli, he appeared taller anyway. And he sure looked a lot more intimidating and threatening and stronger.

 Olli tried to think about a way out. Slowly he started to walk to the end of the bus where his friends were.

‘You can’t save them. You try, you die’, evil Olli growled.

Without listening, Olli stormed towards his friends. He didn’t know what was going to happen but he needed to save them no matter what.

The bus started to tremble as if it was affected by an earthquake. The vehicle rippedin half and the part with Olli’s friends detached and they fell into a chasm that wasn’t there before.

Horrified Olli stared into the depths of the chasm until his friends had completely disappeared. Their agonized screams kept echoing in his ears. Olli screamed until his voice failed him. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

 ‘What have you done?’, he yelled at his clone who has now multiplied. Three other Olli’s had jumped out of the window and into the bus itself. They were closing in on the real guitarist in a predatory way.

 ‘You should ask that question to yourself’, one evil Olli giggles.

‘That’s right’, a second one said.

 ‘You shouldn’t’ve gone after them’, the third huffed.

‘Look what you’ve done’, the fourth evil clone blamed while inching even closer.

 ‘Y- you monsters!’, Olli stammered. He was shaking like a fragile leaf but he needed to be strong. Strong for his fallen friends. He needed to avenge them. He needed to avenge himself for all the harm these clones had brought him during the previous nights.

 

While the evil clones kept approaching him, Olli closed his eyes and let his mind go somewhere else, somewhere safe.

 

_This can’t be real. There can’t be evil clones of myself. I would never hurt my friends. I would never ooze black bile from my eyes. This is just a nightmare, a dream… A dream! This is a dream! My dream!_

 

At the realization of this, Olli’s eyes snapped back open. His stance became more comfortable and confident. He furrowed his brow and shouted: ‘Back off! Don’t get any closer or I kill you!’

 ‘Kill us?’, one clone cackled.

‘How can you kill someone who’s invincible?’, the second questioned in a mocking tone.

‘How foolish of you’, the third Olli clone spat out some black saliva. Where the fluid hit the floor, that part dissolved as if it got burnt by something chemical. It made the real Olli twitch. But then he quickly regained his confidence.

 ‘This is _my_ dream and you need to fuck off!’, the lead guitarist snarled.

 

_If this is my dream, I must have total control of the situation!_

 

Olli then slammed his fist without hesitating into one of the windows, shattering it. He took one of the sharp pieces into his hand as a knife. Olli didn’t mind getting slightly hurt by the piece of broken mirror.

He closed his eyes once more and dsharply, trying to ignore the thick mist surrounding him now.

 ‘This is your dream and you can do whatever you want in this dream!’, he muttered to himself before opening his eyes to face his demons.

He rushed forward. This time, he had no fear. He launched himself onto one of his evil clones and stabbed him right in the face. Olli expected to see a terrific mutilated face but got greeted with a body of pure mud. It stuck onto Olli like slime.

 He just turned around in time to defend himself against another clone. He kicked the clone with his shoe and the clone dissolved into dirt as well.

 The third and fourth evil Olli had teamed up and attacked the guitarist at the same time. It made the musician scream and hack and slash in the air to free himself.

 ‘There…’, Olli stabbed one clone in the upper leg.

‘Can!’, he continued stabbing that clone in the leg until it turned into black slime, covering a big part of the guitarist’s hand with it.

 ‘Be!’, Olli grunted as he now fougt against the last malicious clone. ‘One me!’, the musician cried out as he finally got rid of the final clone.

He collapsed onto the floor of the only remaining part of the bus. He was covered in the bile the clones left behind. He panted heavily and looked around him. The mist was starting to disappear.

 The guitarist got startled when all of a sudden all the remaining windows shattered. He covered his head with his hands to protect himself from the pieces that rained down on him.

When all windows were broken, finally some light found its way through the broken windows and Olli dared to look up again. The light killed the remains of the clones and Olli couldn’t help but laugh.

 ‘I did it!’, he screams to the sky.

 

‘I defeated them!’, Olli opened his eyes and saw he was accompanied by his friends. He was back in the world of the living, he thought relieved.

Jaska was looking at him in an endearing way.

 ‘Good job, Olli! I first thought I had to wake you up’, the taller guitarist smiled.

‘Your hand is hurt!’, Jari noticed.

 ‘It’s alright. I got the first aid kit with me!’, Jani ran towards the wounded guitarist and helped him bandage the hand.

 ‘Must’ve gotten it while fighting my evil clones', Olli muttered.

‘Evil clones?’, Jani chuckled. The blond guitarist rolled his eyes and grunted: ‘It wasn’t as funny as it sounds, though!’

 ‘I’m sorry for laughing’, the bassist apologized.  
‘Hm, it’s okay. Thanks for patching me up’, Olli replied.


	10. Lights on

The next person to face their nightmares was the lead singer. During the day they did a lot of talking and sharing their experience with the nightmares.

‘So what do you think your dream means?’, Kapu wanted to analyze the dream.

‘Maybe I’m afraid of having a split personality? Or just being afraid of myself and it gets projected in the different “personas” I created over the years’, Marko tried.

 ‘Could you be afraid to lose yourself?’, Jaska guessed.

‘You mean: to lose yourself in all those different personalities?’, Jari added. The guitarist nodded.

‘Perhaps. I know everyone has different “versions of themselves” but sometimes it makes me confused’, Marko outed his worries.

 ‘Let’s say those personas are “real”. They’re still a part of you, Marko. You can’t deny that. But you can’t let one of them take over. You need to find a balance’, Jaska said.

 

‘Jari, you said the grudge of this town got unleashed on us, right?’, Olli suddenly mentioned.

‘Yes’, the drummer answered.

‘And it depended on the people’s state and situation?’, the older man asked further.

 ‘You mean _how_ the “curse” manifests itself?’, the drummer guessed.

‘Yes. Back when we went to that town, we just got done with shooting the videoclip of _Locking up the Sun_ , right? Maybe that’s why we’re haunted by our inner demons. Maybe that’s why we have to face off against our clones and other manifestations of our fears’, the lead guitarist gave another insight of the reason of all this!’

 ‘Damn, you could be right!’, Markus exclaimed. It took the other bandmembers a while to take in the new approach of this curse.

 

When night came, Marko laid down. Jari and Olli were already sleeping. They’d already encouraged Marko.

 Now the bassist of the band stepped up to the singer. He grabbed Marko’s hand in his own and squeezed him gently.

 ‘Kick that face stealer’s’ ass!’, he nodded.

‘I’ll try’, Marko smiled at his friend. Jaska and Markus stood also next to their lead singer.

 ‘Show them who’s boss, Marko’, the keyboardist grinned.

‘We’ll be there for you’, Jaska reassured his friend.

 ‘I’m glad I can count on you, guys. But try to sleep a little bit as well’, Marko said, still worried about his friends’ wellbeing.

 ‘It’s okay. Just like yesterday, we’ll take rounds’, Jani replied.

 

When Marko woke up in his dream, he found himself back in the theatre again. It felt like Hamartia’s presence had gotten stronger than before.

Marko knew he was dreaming again, still the creep instilled fear in the singer’s heart.

 ‘Hehehe, you’re back’, the man said with an unusual lisp. He was sitting on the front row like always but he eventually stood up and joined Marko on the stage.

 The man wearing the jester mask swung his arm around the singer as if it was supposed to be a friendly gesture. Marko wondered when the mask was glued together again because he still saw the cracks where it had broken. In Marko’s eyes, the mas was beyond repair but then again this was a horrible nightmare where everything was possible.

 ‘Chu chu, aren’t you happy to see me?’, the imposter pouted behind his mask. Marko could see ice cold eyes ogle him behind the slits of that jester mask. The singer pushed the nightmare version of himself away as a reply.

 But the monster dragged Marko back to himself, holding him in an iron grip this time.

 ‘I know what your plan is’, the man hissed and it made Marko himself flinch.

‘You’re trying to get rid of me but I’m sorry to disappoint you buddy! Ain’t gonna happen. I’m here to stay.’

 Hamartia vanished like smoke and materialized himself on the spectator’s balcony.

‘Forever!’, he laughed like a true madman. Now he teleported himself onto the front row again.

He let his fingertips brush each other and asked amused: ‘Now, how are you going to get rid of me?’

 ‘I, eh’, Marko stammered. He realized he didn’t really have a plan. It made him feel stupid and incredibly small right now.

 ‘Looks like you don’t even have a plan!’, the jester mocked. ‘How pathetic.’ He jumped onto the podium and removed his mask.

 Every time it got removed, Marko knew what was behind it but every time he was disgusted by this monster wearing his various “faces”.

 

‘What? You don’t like my jester look?’, the man huffed annoyed.

Then he changed his face into that of Jeremiah Peacekeeper. This man wasn’t anything like the Peacekeeper Marko described in his song and video.

 ‘You like me better like this: your friend Jerry Peacekeeper?’, the fake Jeremiah chuckles.

His eyes are a sickish grey. They almost have that zombie feeling to it.

 ‘You’re not Jeremiah nor are you Hamartia. You’re just a sick… sick fuck’, the singer finally found something to yell.

 The creep disappears in smoke again. The black smoke stalked its way to Marko and wrapped around his leg. Marko shivered and felt stunned. He froze and couldn’t do anything.

 The malevolent “twin” of the singer pins its claw into Marko’s neck and back. ‘We’re the same. You and I. We belong together. You can’t separate us. You can’t kill me or you’ll kill yourself too.’

 Marko hissed and trembled all over his body. Sweat formed in his neck and on his brow.

What if this nightmare was right? What if Marko killed him and the singer would die in real life? He remembered how a part of Olli’s nightmare manifested itself into the real world as well.

 Marko gulped at the mere thought of this creep seeping into the world of his friends.

‘You created me’, the dark version of the singer lisped into the man’s ear. ‘You can’t kill your darlings. It’s the unwritten rule.’

 ‘I can’, Marko clenched his fists. He gritted his teeth.

Now the creep detached itself from the singer and howled: ‘And how are you going to kill me? Huh? With your bare hands? With your voice? You can’t kill something that doesn’t exist!’

 ‘You’re contradicting yourself’, Marko huffed. ‘A minute ago you told me you could be killed but that would mean I’d kill myself in the process. So shut up!’

 ‘What now, Marko? And here I thought you liked to hear yourself speak! You’re the frontman of the band for a reason’, the fake Jeremiah scoffed.

 When the singer didn’t reply to that, Jeremiah stormed towards him with incredible speed and the lightbulbs cracked and the lights went out, leaving Marko in complete darkness.

 ‘Time to think is over!’

 

Marko braced himself for the attack but it never came. Desperately he forced his eyes to get used to the blackness around him.

 Then he felt a firm punch in his flank, throwing him off balance. The singer managed to stabilize himself but he felt the other man’s presence nearing already.

He managed to dodge the attack but soon after he got a kick in his back. Marko fell onto the floor and groaned in pain.

 This evil person was much stronger.

While Marko was struggling to find something to hold onto, to find support, the evil Jeremiah kept playing around with the singer.

 

 _These are not Hamartia or Jeremiah or anyone else. They must’ve been consumed by whatever controls this dark place. You know these personas always represented some trait of your personality but they are_ not _you. They’re mere reflections and whatever is sulking in this darkness, isn’t. Now that darkness is trying to steal your face. Don’t let it. Defeat it!_

Marko crawled back up and saw something glistening in all that blackness.

Without doubting it could be his solution, the singer ran to it but the floor beneath him started to crumble. He fell back to the floor.

 ‘Oh no you don’t!’, the voice of the face stealer screeched.

Marko tried to ignore it and instead crawled more towards the glistening object. With quite the struggle he reached the thing and saw it was Hamartia’s jester mask. It still had the same form but it didn’t have the ornaments anymore. The mask was plain and smooth. Marko could see himself reflected in the mirror like surface.

 

He could see his own face. His face blurred a bit and he saw some fractions of all the roles he had played in his past.

He didn’t throw the mask away though. Instead he held it in front of him when felt the monster’s presence again. It screeched and with its shadows it tried to get rid of the mirror mask.

 To prevent it from doing so, Marko finally put on the mask.

‘I’m Marko Saaresto and _you_ are not a part of me and you never were!’, the singer shoutsed.

‘ARGH YOU TRICKED ME!!!’, the monster screamed in agony as it started to fade away.

 After the monster had been defeated, the lights magically turned on again and Marko fell through the wooden floor into a void.

 His heart didn’t beat. His eyes were focused onto the fading world above him.

 

Then the singer awoke by the sound of a sudden crack. He dared to open his eyes and saw something was covering his face. Was he still dreaming? Was he forever lost?

 ‘Marko, it’s alright’, the voice of the drummer brought him back to reality.

He felt someone removing something from his face. It was Kapu who had removed… the broken mask of Hamartia.

 ‘You did it’, Jari smiled. The two guitarists who sat next to Marko’s side clapped in their hands.

Kapu looked at the mask.

 ‘Are you planning on repairing it?’, he asked the singer.

Marko shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. It had a good run and it’s sad it’s broken but it’s better this way.’


	11. Finally silence

‘Maybe I should wear earbuds if it could prevent me from getting deaf in my dream’, the drummer joked before he took on the role of the dreamer.

 ‘Good luck’, Olli said and the others wished their youngest bandmember good luck too.

‘Phew, so nervous’, Jari muttered as he closed his eyes. He had no idea how to face his nightmare but he had to. If Marko and Olli could do it, then so could he. With a fast beating heart he entered the realm of the nightmares.

 

Just like always, Jari was sitting behind his drumkit with his prison clothes on. Soon the raspy voice through the speakers called him out.

 ‘You’re finally back again. Took you long enough.’

Jari gritted his teeth.

 ‘I sure am.’

‘So confident today. Let’s see how that changes after you’ve played some more’, the voice sounded annoyed already, making Jari worried.

It didn’t take the drummer long to notice the increasing distortions of the sound of his drums. Soon the faces of his bandmembers appeared on the different drums again and laughed at him. Their shadows grew and grew and Jari desperately tried to fight it. He wasn’t going to make it, he thought. He would be swallowed again. The scream that he wanted to out got stuck in his throat as the shadows of his deformed bandmates took him.

 

 The drummer’s heart kept beating at a fast pace when he felt himself wake up. He clenched his fists and felt the sweat in his palm. There was still a ringing noise in his ears when he opened his eyes.

He was back in their bus. He looked around him. Jaska was sitting in the seat opposite of him. He was slumped back and snored in his sleep.

 Olli and Marko were seen sitting together but the bassist and the keyboardist of the band were nowhere to be seen.

 Jari carefully crouched up and decided to check on them. He left the sleeping bandmembers alone. Everyone needed their rest especially in the situation they were in.

 ‘Jani? Markus?’, Jari tried to keep his voice low but audible enough for the two musicians.

‘Ah, Jari! There you are!’, Kapu suddenly appeared behind the drummer and tapped him friendly on the shoulder.

Although the gesture was meant to be friendly, Jari remarked the subtle _grip_ on him. When his eyes met Markus’, he saw a dark gloom in them. The man quickly blinked and stared at Jari, questioning.

 ‘Something wrong?’, Markus asked but the younger musician shook his head.

‘No, nothing’, he muttered.

Now Jani, who apparently sat in one of the bus’s seats, stood up and walked over to Markus and Jari.

 ‘How are you doing, Jari?’, the bassist asked.

If Jari’s hearing was still intact, he was very sure Jani’s voice was slightly _different_. He couldn’t put his finger on it exactly but something was wrong. The young man rubbed his eyes and thought if he was still dreaming or not. He was back in the bus and he got swallowed by the shadows in the nightmare. He didn’t make it through and now he was back in the world of the living.

 ‘Jari?’, Jani’s voice became compelling.

The bassist took a step towards the drummer but the youngest musician stepped back cautiously.

In the corner of his eye Jari notices how Olli stood up from his chair. His movement was a bit too rusty to Jari’s likings.

 ‘Are you sure nothing is wrong?’, there was a smile on Olli’s face and just like Jani’s voice, there was something not right about that otherwise warm smile of the blond guitarist. The singer joined the other members and simply looked at the drummer.

 ‘You don’t look so good. The nightmare got you good?’, Marko wondered.

‘B- back off’, Jari stammered as he tried to increase the distance between him and the others.

 ‘What’s the matter, Jari? Don’t be so afraid. You’re back in our world again. The nightmare is over. Nothing to worry about’, Kapu reassured the younger man.

 

_This is not real. I’m still trapped. These aren’t my friends. They try to look and act like them but I can sense it somehow. Kapu’s tighter grip around my shoulder, Jani and Marko’s voices, Olli’s crooked smile._

‘I don’t know who you are but I know for sure you are _not_ my fellow bandmates!’, Jari shouted at them. It made Marko pout.

 ‘Jari? What’s gotten into you? Did that nightmare drive you mad or what?’, the singer now frowned.

Now Jaska joined the rest of the band. He pushed himself in front of Kapu and Jani until he stood face to face with Jari.

 ‘I’m sorry I hadn’t waken you up myself but you really seemed to handle the dream well’, the tall man apologized and Jari wished he could believe him.

Jaska stretched out his hand but the other musician refused.

 ‘You’re not the Jaska I know. Besides, you seemed to be sleeping when I woke up’, Jari retorted.

The older man slightly hissed and shook his head.

 ‘Gosh, Jari. Really man, get yourself together! You’re acting weird and it’s creeping me out!’

Jari looked in the taller man’s eyes and he almost believed Jaska if it wasn’t for his next words: ‘If you’re not going to act normal again, I’ll have to beat some sense into your damaged brains.’

 It was a snarl.

The youngest bandmember inhaled and exhaled sharply before he snapped back: ‘Maybe _I_ should punch some sense into _you_!’

Without further ado Jari rushed forwards to the guitarist and smacked him in his stomach. Surprised Jaska lost his balance and fell onto the floor. He growled and tried to hide the hole on his stomach caused by the drummer’s punch.

 ‘How? How did you know?’, this fake Jaska seemed to lose his control.

‘Jaska, don’t lose your temper’, Marko stammered. Jari took the opportunity to increase their distance even more.

While he was running he could hear Jaska give Marko a smack across the face.

 

The drummer gasped when he reached the very end of the bus. He was trapped. Now an enraged man was running towards him. ‘HOW DID YOU KNOW?!’

 ‘Because the real Jaska, the Jaska I know, would never hurt me or the other bandmembers’, Jari shouted back. He was both angry and terrified.

The taller man’s appearance had changed and he was hardly recognizable as their guitarist. In the blink of an eye Jari remembered the impact his simple punch had caused on the taller man.

He braced himself and by the time “Jaska” reached him, he slammed his fist against the monster. The mass of “skin” turned into goo. With a last howl, the monster was defeated.

 It gave Jari more confidence. He turned his eyes to the floor and saw his trustworthy drumsticks there. He picked them up without questioning, swirled them around and started walking towards the other “bandmembers”.

Just like Jaska they had transformed into unrecognizable versions of themselves.

 ‘Looks like the tables have turned!’, Jari hissed angrily at the voice who seemed to be absent now.

Jari rushed forward and started to attack the monsters until they turned into piles of goo.

 After they had been defeated, Jari saw how more black goo started to fill the whole bus. If he didn’t act quick, he would get swallowed by it.

The drummer didn’t want the nightmare to win and desperately looked for a way out.

The front window, he thought. He sprinted towards it, his drumsticks ready for the final attack. He jumped and with his mightiest force he crashed the drumsticks against the window. He succeeded in cracking the window but it wasn’t enough to break them.

 Jari cursed and launched himself against the window.

One time. Two times. ‘This better be third time lucky’, the drummer grunted to himself as he made himself ready for a third run.

 He jumped just in time before the goo absorbed the ground he was just standing on. With success Jari lets his body shatter the window and he fell through the window. By the time he reached the soil, he lost consciousness.

 

‘Jari! Jari! Oh god, Jari, please, wake up!’, the deep voice of his friend made Jari’s eyes open up.

His body felt painful and heavy. Apparently he was laying in the arms of Jaska who looked seriously worried. When Jari coughed, he coughed up some of the black goo.

 ‘Jani, you still got that first aid kit?’, Jaska shouted at the bassist.

‘Coming right up!’, it was the other guitarist who delivered the kit. Jani also joined the group and helped Jaska and Olli tend to Jari’s wounds.

 ‘Looks like that nightmare messed you up’, the blond guitarist muttered as he tried to disinfect some of the cuts on Jari’s arms while Jaska wiped away some of the drummer’s sweat on his forehead.

Jani took care of the bruises on Jari’s legs.

 ‘Yes. The dream was so realistic. I “woke up” and for a second I believed it.’

‘What gave it away?’, Jaska wanted to know.

 ‘Your behavior. There was something off with Jani’s voice and Markus’ gesture. Olli’s laugh as well. But I couldn’t prove it. Then a fake version of you came along’, Jari dared to look the dark haired guitarist in the eyes.

 ‘Me?’, he chuckled.

‘Yes. You appeared to be concerned but got angry really quickly. You even threatened to hurt me. That way I knew for a hundred percent I was still dreaming’, Jari managed to say. He still felt breathless after what had happened.

 ‘I assure you, you’re not dreaming anymore. I’m glad you know the real me wouldn’t hurt you’, Jaska grinned and stroked Jari’s back in a soothing way.

 ‘Hm, it looks like it’s almost dawn’, Olli noticed as he looked outside of the windows.

‘That means it’s Kapu’s turn’, Jani commented.

 ‘Where is he? And where’s Marko?’, Jari wanted to know.

‘They’re still sleeping’, the bassist replied. ‘You hurt anywhere else?’

 ‘I think you guys patched me up enough’, the drummer smiled.


	12. Detached

When Kapu finally had relaxed and closed his eyes, Marko took his hand in a reassuring gesture.

‘It will be difficult but you’ll make it through just like the others’, the singer declared. It incited a smirk from the keyboardist and he slightly nodded.

 ‘I trust your words, Marko. And to the rest: thanks for the encouragement. From what I’ve heard from the previous nightmares, they won’t go easy on you!’, Markus muttered before he drifted into his sleep.

 

Kapu gasped for breath as he woke up in his nightmare. He found himself in a by oil consumed studio. He was sitting behind his piano. The nightmare was almost in reverse. Markus was totally covered in the blackness apart from his eyes. Slightly confused he witnessed the oil retreat and the black keys let go of his hands now until he could move them freely again. It was some sort of relief but Markus remained cautious.

Who knew how long the nightmare would give him this breathing space? The room started to restore to “normal”.

Markus really needed to remind himself he was still in a dream and that this wasn’t the real studio but simply an imitation of it.

 A poor imitation that is, Kapu thought bitterly. The paintings were all wrong and the beanbags were missing. Besides, this darn room didn’t appear to have a bloody exit.

Although Kapu wanted to move, he found himself incapable of leaving his chair.

 ‘Guess I won’t leave then’, the keyboardist muttered to himself. He wondered if a possessed Olli (or another bandmember for that matter) would show up this time.

 After he’d been waiting for minutes now, he decided the only option he had was play the darn cursed piano.

 He didn’t like it but that might be the only way to get out of this nightmare.

Just as expected, the room around him started to change again. Walls were crying in black tears. This time the walls seemed to get closer and closer to Markus.

 He hissed as he felt the thick air around him seeping into his mouth and lungs. Desperately he tried to play his instrument but the black keys started to consume his fingers again, making it difficult to move.

 In all the consuming madness Markus tried to remain calm but the suffocating feel tried to distract him.

 He closed his eyes so at least his sight wouldn’t be a distraction. He also tried to shut down his sense of touch.

 

_Don’t listen to the noises around you. Don’t feel that horrible oil creep up to your fingertips all the way to your hands. Don’t look at it either. Think serene thoughts. Serenity in this shattered world, huh._

Kapu was sure he was finally in some kind of mediation trance until he suddenly started to hear a song.

The returning quote was the part about the key. The witch’s cabin key.

Markus guessed it must’ve been the solution for his way out of all this but how? He never saw a key in this very room. Then he made the mistake to open his eyes again.

His tranquility got brutally disturbed by his surroundings. The black oil had reached his waist and it looked like it was _boiling_. What worried Markus the most was that he couldn’t feel the heat of the bubbling substance.

But he could feel the aching pain in his fingers. The oil had grasped more onto him. The musician tried desperately to free himself but it looked impossible.

 Those darn black keys were like razor sharp claws holding him still and-

‘The keys! The-’, Kapu exclaimed as he finally understood what he needed to do. He couldn’t say more because some of that horrible mud had found its way into his mouth.

He blabbered frustrated. What was the note he used to play during that particular part in the song, Kapu tried to recall it.

Due to the stress it took him longer than expected but finally he remembered. With all his might he moved his hands over the keys on his piano to look for the right chords and keys.

 Despite the oil trying to keep him locked up, Markus managed.

As soon as he pressed the right keys, the oil detached from everything in the room, including the musician himself.

 It gave Markus the right breathing space but then he fainted.

 

‘I-, I can’t feel my fingers’, Kapu coughed as he woke up. The drummer and the bassist sat next to him.

 ‘Try to wake up carefully’, Jari suggested.

‘I… I’ll try’, Markus muttered. He still didn’t dare to open his eyes, afraid of how he might look like. He remembered the others who had been the Dreamers, returned with either wounds or an object from the nightmare.

 ‘It’s alright, Markus. Your fingers were only trembling a lot. I think we can wipe away the dirt from it with ease’, came Jani’s voice. Then the keyboardist felt the other man’s hands in his own. It made the older man dare to look up.

 ‘I see’, he murmured.

His fingers were covered in the black oil. The bassist stood up to get Kapu a wet towel to clean his fingers with. The keyboardist was relieved to see his normal skin color underneath the mess.

‘So how did it go?’, Jari wanted to know after Kapu had fully recovered from the dream.

 ‘Difficult as expected. One of our songs has saved me, though’, Kapu chuckled.

‘Looks like our music is magic after all!’, Jani laughed.

Now Jaska appeared in the three musician’s vision. ‘All these successful stories give me hope for my own happy ending, you know?’

 ‘Ah, that’s right: you’re next’, Markus stated and the guitarist nodded.

‘Yep. Gotta deal with these monsters’, the tall man patted himself on his tattoos and sighed.

 ‘Good luck. I’m sure you’ll find a way’, Kapu reassured the other man. ‘Phew, I’m afraid I’ll need to sleep some more now.’

 ‘You deserve it. And don’t worry, the night after I defeated my nightmare, I had a dreamless night’, Jari reassured him.


	13. Over my dead skin!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Longer than expected xD Hope you enjoy

Jari, Olli and Jani were sleeping.

Marko and Kapu were the first ones to take shifts. Jaska had laid down and grunted. Kapu stood next to him and tried to calm him down.

 ‘I know it won’t be easy, but you’re a tough guy’, he said.

Jaska laughed sarcastically: ‘But so were those darn tattoos that had come to life!’

 Eventually the guitarist gave in to his sleep and wandered off back to the gray isolation that was his sickbed in the hospital area of an unknown prison.

 

‘Well, looks like you’ve finally awaken, mister Mäkinen’, the honey sweet voice of the nurse was heard. The evil disguised in something sweet, Jaska thought bitterly as he opened his eyes.

Although the nurse looked like she meant no harm, she surely was part of the nightmare which made her untrustworthy.

 ‘Wha- what do you mean “finally”?’, the guitarist grunted.

‘You’ve been slipping in and out of reality, mister Mäkinen’, the nurse clarified with a worried look.

 ‘Oh’, Jaska couldn’t recall that.

‘Say, nurse, why am I tied to my bed then? Am I a prisoner?’

 ‘You’re not tied to the bed?’, the nurse frowned with a wry smile on her red lips. Jaska dared to take a peek underneath his blankets and remarked there were no straps attached to his body nor did he miss his legs.

 ‘But yes, you are a prisoner’, the woman now told him.

Jaska didn’t really want to know the answer to the question but he asked anyway: ‘What did I do?’

The nurse didn’t react to that and wanted to walk away. The man now took advantage of having legs again. He stood up and grabbed the woman by her wrist.

 ‘Nurse, tell me!’, he said with a slight growl.

She looked him straight in the eye and calmly replied: ‘You killed your friends. Now if you excuse me, I got other important things to do.’ She tugged herself free from Jaska’s grip and left him in his claustrophobic room.

 Flabbergasted Jaska fell back onto his bed. Did he really kill his friends?

Was everything an illusion? Them, the bus, the nightmares? Was _this_ his real state? What about the tattoos then?  Maybe it was a side effect of going crazy? The man dared a glance at his arms. The bandages were still there. He didn’t want to remove them. Last time that happened, nasty things followed.

 He lied back in his bed and simply stared at the ceiling.

Jaska felt confused. Was this the nightmare he needed to fight? Or was this the reality of everything? Did he suppress the memory of killing his friends?

 

Days went by and multiple doctors checked upon Jaska’s health. Some of them looked at him with subtle disgust. Behind closed doors, the former guitarist could hear them rumor too.

 ‘How could he kill his best friends?’

‘No one like him should live.’

 ‘You can’t kill your bandmembers, right?’

Jaska had nightmares about the past events. The blood, the tears and the cries of his bandmembers who begged for his mercy. It all felt too real to be untrue.

It made him believe he really must’ve lost his mind, causing these strange idyllic dreams about the time when everyone of the band was still alive.

 

One day, Jaska finally gets released from his hospital bed. The doctors deem him to be physically cured. Mentally? Probably never they said behind his back.

Truth is: Jaska gets locked up from one room into another one. This one’s a bit bigger though. There’s one bucket for his needs that gets cleaned only once a week.

 He is surprised he’s not locked up with other prisoners. He wonders if they deem him this dangerous.

A part of him is glad he has a cell on his own.

 The other part is a bit disappointed because he still has only himself to talk to.

The other inmates don’t dare to go near him nor do they talk to him.

This lack of interaction drives the man crazy.

 

‘Hey, Jaska’, a voice whispered. Jaska didn’t recognize the voice and wondered where it came from.

It was not a guard, not a nurse nor was it another inmate.

He opened his eyes in the darkness and tried to find out who was talking to him.

 ‘It’s us! Your _real_ buddies!’, the voice called out again.

No matter how much Jaska was used to the darkness, he still couldn’t see anything that caused the voice.

 ‘Are you in my head?’, the prisoner muttered.

‘More like in your arm. _On_ your arm!’, the voice chuckled. Then Jaska remembered he had bandages around his arms.

 ‘No, this can’t be…’, the man stammered slightly frightened.

‘Yes it can! Release us, please! Those bandages making it hard to breathe!’, the voice pleaded.

Jaska, not sure if there was anything better to do, decided to obey the voice. After his bandages were removed, the tattoos crawled out of his skin and went to sit on his shoulder. The tiger and the dragon were entangled with each other and the fish just kind of floated above the guitarist’s shoulder.

 ‘It has been a long time, Jaska!’, the koi declared.

‘What do you mean?’

 ‘Since we talked. Well, if you could call it talking’, the koi snorted.

‘Yeah. You always tried to get rid of us even though we tried to help you!’, the dragon accused.

‘What? I don’t remember!’, Jaska exclaimed.

 ‘Don’t worry anymore. We’ll get you out of here’, the dragon now joined the strange conversation.

‘Am I dreaming?’, Jaska wanted to know.

 ‘No. We’re real. Just like your friends _used to be_ ’, the koi’s mention of Jaska’s former bandmembers gave him painful flashbacks of the murder he committed on them.

 ‘Do not fret anymore. Let us help you and you’re out of here in no-time!’, the tiger murmured against the shoulder it was sitting on.

 ‘But I deserve to be here. I mean… I killed them. How could I? What was I even thinking?’, Jaska sounded desperate and frustrated. He walked in circles and ended up against the bars of his cell. He grasped onto them and tugged at them.

 ‘Argh! I can’t believe it. I’m going crazy because of it! I’m talking to tattoos that have come to life and now I trust them in my escape from jail!’, he shouted out.

 Suddenly he felt a claw against his mouth. From what he could see, it was the tiger’s.

His tattoo had become a life sized tiger. Great. As if things weren’t worse already.

 ‘If you keep shouting like that, people might notice’, the animal snarled before he pushed Jaska aside.

‘As we said earlier, let us do the work for you’, the dragon joined the tiger at the bars. Together they tugged at them until they had an opening.

 ‘Come on, Jaska. What are you waiting for? The cops?’, the koi sounded annoyed.

 

Eventually the former guitarist decided to go along with it and sneaked out of his cell. Soon the alarms rang, inmates started to scream Jaska’s name and the man had to run for his life.

He dodged bullets and knives like there was no tomorrow. He was surprised he had these amazing dodging skills.

 The musician even knocked out a cop.

‘Take his gun. It will keep you safe!’, the koi insisted. Jaska didn’t dare to do otherwise and picked up the gun. Before he knew it he shot his way through the prison. If his mind was a clock, it would be rotating too fast.

 ‘I killed those cops. I know how to fire a gun!’, Jaska managed to say in between fighting, dodging and escaping.

 ‘Of course you do, you’re a born murderer!’, the tiger madly laughed.

‘I’m not!’, Jaska stopped in his tracks. He found himself surrounded by guards with their fire targeted on him. In a reflex the escaped prisoner dropped his weapon and raised his hands.

 ‘What do you think you’re doing?’, the koi hissed.

‘I’m surrendering’, Jaska snapped back.

 ‘They’ll kill you’, the dragon countered.

‘If I keep going like this: yes they will. But maybe I could bargain’, Jaska tried.                      

 ‘No they won’t’, the tiger growled.

‘Lend us your skin and we’ll fight and you’ll survive’, the koi suggested. Although it was said as a suggestion, the fish actually meant it as a command.

Before Jaska could complain he felt the tiger jump back into his body. The koi fish planted itself into the musician’s arm and the dragon found its way into the prisoner’s leg.

 Jaska now felt his body controlled by three crazy tattoos. His own darn tattoos had taken control of him like he was a mere puppet to them.

 Without wanting it, he killed most of the guards that had surrounded him.

 

 _Now I understand._ They _have killed my friends. They took control of me. I would never kill my friends in cold blood! Heck, I would never consider it!_

‘Finally, he gets it’, the koi cackled amused.

‘Silly Jaska. So naïve and stupid to believe a talking tiger’, the tiger chaffed.

‘It’s too late now’, the dragon made sure Jaska’s legs kept moving on their own.

‘Get out of my body’, Jaska screamed in agony as he felt his every muscle pulled without his consent. The three animals didn’t listen to him as they steered his body to the exit of the prison.

Jaska couldn’t let them escape. He had to do something. He couldn’t let them cause another massacre or god knows what they were up to.

 Somewhere in his mind he found his own self materialized.

And Jaska decided to fight his now literally inner demons. He pulled at the tail of the dragon, beat into the koi fish’s fat body and scratched against the tiger’s paws.

 ‘You idiot! If  you do that, you’ll get yourself killed too!’, the koi wailed but Jaska wouldn’t listen.

‘Over my dead body are you going to use _my_ skin to do harmful things to others!’, the now enraged prisoner snarled.

The fight was intense and Jaska almost passed out twice because of the powerful force of the tattoos.

 But he eventually got rid of that annoying fish. His arms now failed him and he let the gun drop in the “real world”.

Jaska’s arms had become too numb and heavy to move.

 Then the guitarist kicked the dragon out and he fell onto the ground as he nor the dragon had control over his legs anymore.

 Jaska headbutted the tiger with all his force and with that, the tiger got removed from Jaska’s body as well.

The guitarist coughed and bled onto the ground as he slowly started to lose his consciousness. He was going to die but now no one else would be hurt, he thought before he gave in.

 

‘Someone get him upright or he will choke!’

Jaska, unaware of his surroundings, felt nauseous. His body felt  so heavy. Someone was holding him up and his head a bit down.

 He had a suffocating feeling in his throat.

‘God, he _is_ choking!’, the familiar voice of Olli was heard. The blond guitarist now tapped on his fellow bandmember’s back to help him and Jaska felt like vomiting now.

 Eventually he did.

Everyone was surprised to see Jaska throw up an actual small koi fish.

 ‘Now have you ever seen something like that!’, Jari exclaimed.

Olli now rubbed the back of his friend to calm him down. Jaska breathed heavily to see his friends alive and well.

 Sweat dripped off his forehead so Kapu got him a towel.

‘Looks like you had it very tough too’, he commented as he gave the other man the towel.

 Jaska nodded and hissed: ‘It felt like weeks that I was stuck in that nightmare and I lost my memory in it too! Making me believe _this_ was the dream and _that_ was reality!’

 ‘Now you’re back with us’, Jari smiled at him, hoping to calm him down.

‘That’s right’, Olli murmured. ‘You’re with us again. And it looks like you defeated your demons’, he added with a nod to the dead fish.

Jaska looked at it in disgust before checking his real tattoos. They were fine. Nothing weird was going on anymore. He sighed in relief when he touched them.

 ‘Thanks for having my back’, the guitarist outed his thanks.

‘It’s nothing, really. Having each other’s backs is like breathing’, Kapu grinned and the other awake bandmembers agreed.

 ‘I hope I can sleep now’, Jaska sounded worried even though the previous dreamers didn’t complain about new or returning nightmares.

 ‘Should I sleep next to you?’, Jari suggested and Jaska liked the idea of it.


	14. Definitive

When night creeps closer upon the band Jani realized he was the only person who still needed to dream.

He was very nervous.

 ‘You guys barely made it out alive. I just hope I don’t get stuck in a limbo or something’, the bassist expressed is worries.

The other bandmembers sat around their friend and gave him their final encouragements.

‘Markus and I keep watch over you now. Then we switch with Jaska and Marko’, Olli informed.

 ‘So, how did the day in general go?’, Kapu wanted to know to distract the bassist from his worry.

Jani sighed: ‘It went by slowly. Incredibly slowly which made me even more nervous.’

 ‘Wish I had my acupuncture needles with me to calm you down’, the singer muttered. ‘Try to breathe calmly. Inhale, keep your breath for three or four seconds and then exhale. Keep your breath again for a few seconds and repeat.’ Jani nodded and tried to follow Marko’s advice. It helped and soon he was relaxing.

His eyelids felt heavy. The last few days had been rough on him but now he was ready to face his nightmare hopefully for the last time.

 

The bassist’s eyes snapped open and he found himself laying in the grass of the meadow. Luckily for him, he understood he was back in the dream world. His fingers traced over the green before he sat up.

 The fact that this part of the nightmare looked so peaceful, made it feel threatening as well.

Eventually Jani stood up and groaned. ‘Time to relive everything’, he snorted to himself. From the things he had learned from the other musicians’ experiences, he should try to do the opposite of his previous acts or literally fight a clone of himself. Too bad he never dreamt about having an evil twin against him.

 Except from that creepy reflection in the water.

Now he started to walk again. It was the only thing he could do anyway.

 Unlike previous dreams he didn’t take out his photo camera. He just walked and walked until he became tired.

 And when that happened, he got tackled by something.

Jani cursed and tried to look for the source that caused him to fall. He was surprised to see a _doorknob_ in the ground. He looked around him to see if something else in the environment had changed. Nothing.

 Curiously but also cautiously he turned the doorknob and entered through the horizontal door.

As he descended and looked back, he saw the meadow slowly disappear.

In shock Jani noticed how the steps of the seemingly endless staircase in front of him started to vanish as well. He screamed when he felt himself falling. He closed his eyes and when he noticed he was no longer falling, he dared to open his eyes.

 

He was back in the city. People were walking passed the bassist like they did not see him. The city life rushed by while Jani remained stoic and slightly dizzy.

He shook his head quickly and looked around him. The camera hung around his neck now. He took it off and reluctantly started to make photos.

As expected, no one seemed to mind or even notice the bassist. He walked around until he approached the tallest building again.

 ‘Nothing special to see’, Jani muttered to himself as he looks up at the building. It displayed huge mirrors, reflecting a big part of the city behind the photographer. It took Jani a while to keep staring until he noticed the changes around him.  
 He glared at the photos on his camera and shuddered at the sight of the deformed faces of the people he had photographed.

 He would never get used to it, he thought, no matter how many times he dreamt about this.

The blue sky hade transformed into a cloudy canvas and finally the raindrops started to fall down. People turned into monsters and Jani himself saw himself change in the reflections of the puddles of water.

He tried to delete the photos in hope of changing the tide but it was all in vain... again.

 During his frustration caused by his “fight” with his photo camera the bassist didn’t notice some people closing in on him.

 It was until some of them breathed or hissed his name that Jani looked up.

The people’s eyes were filled with a blackness so intense the bassist didn’t dare to look too deep into them or he might get swallowed in that mess.

 The posture of the people reminded Jani of zombies in a classical horror movie. He decided to seek a more open place.

 Suddenly the whole square seemed to be more crowded than when he just arrived at this part of the city.

 

Soon Jani could hardly move and he needed to squeeze himself through the mass of people. Some of them even clawed at him and tried to clutch onto him.

 It made the man nervous and slightly panicked. He looked for a way out.

He tried to think about the dream he was in. Was there anything different from the previous dreams?

 

_Change! Of course! The sudden door in the meadow. People actually noticing me now and trying to suffocate me._

_I need to find the next change! Another opening or something!_

People were now even more pushing, making Jani lose his balance. He fell onto the ground and into a puddle of water.

He gave his reflection a look and saw that one of his eyes had become “infected” with whatever infected this city’s people. His teeth appeared sharper than usual.

 He kept staring at himself but then tried to focus on something else. In the muddy pool he finally paid attention to the mirror building.

 ‘A big mirror… a mirror to another world’, Jani muttered, half in a daze. He wasn’t completely aware of why he had said that but it might be the only solution he had at the moment.

Jani crawled back up and sprinted for the building. The crowd had become more aggressive and the bassist had to push and beat his way through the mass.

 He hissed when someone with very sharp nails scratched his left cheek. He attempted to ignore the itching feeling and kept moving.

 At last, he had reached his destination. The doors of the mall were locked. Jani slammed his fists against the glass but only hurt himself in the process.

He cursed when he saw the zombie-like people inching closer to him.

 ‘Someone! Help!’, he shouted, hoping that persons inside the building might help him. He knew it’d be probably useless, still he gave it a shot.

 His camera!

He still had the thing around his neck. With shaking hands he struggled to make a panorama shot but because he was basically standing against the mirrors, it was impractical.

 A white flash of the cam lit up the whole darkened place for a second. Jani stumbled a few steps back in shock.

 ‘Nothing’, he cried out and in pure anger he threw his photo camera aside. The thing crashed against the stone and went up in flames. It startled the bassist and he now witnessed how the building was transforming. The top had become liquid and water began to fall down.

 People had gathered around him and appeared aggressive.

Jani didn’t think twice to run to the building even though it looked on the brink of collapsing.

‘Mirror to another world’, the musician kept telling himself. This time, with more faith he pushed his hand against the wall. Much to his surprise it sucked his hand in like jelly.

 It _was_ a portal after all.

With nothing to lose, Jani stepped inside. Once inside the building, he only spotted waterfalls leading to one pit. It felt like he was standing in a massive well or sewer. It made him dizzy.

 ‘You can do it’, a familiar voice yet a bit altered was calling out to him. Jani deemed it to be Marko’s voice.

The bassist shuffled forward only a millimeter or he might fall into the pit.

 ‘Have faith’, the voice was talking again.

‘Things couldn’t get more bizarre’, Jani grumbled to himself before taking the leap of faith. He closed his eyes and jumped.

 ‘I knew you could do it’, a voice was now humming to him.

 

‘I knew you could do it’, someone was patting Jani awake. When the bassist opens his eyes, he saw Marko stand next to him. He was seen smiling.

 Kapu was also close to the tired musician.

‘Am I hurt?’, Jani murmured as he let his hand brush over his cheek.

 ‘A little bit. I think a simple aid bandage will do the trick’, the keyboardist of the group examined the cut on his friend’s cheek.

 ‘Now we’ve all been dreamers’, Jani declared.

‘Yes. I think we’re finally able to go home and get some real sleep’, Marko huffed.


	15. The end?

In the night from Saturday to Sunday, Jaska woke up to weird noises in the bus.

This couldn’t be real, he thought annoyed. The nightmares were over, right? Everyone had defeated theirs. The noises he heard were too abnormal to be human. He opened his tired eyes and tried to look around in the bus. He remarked shadows moving around, whispering. He started to realize these were not the shadows of his friends.

Before he got to warn the other bandmembers about the strange intruders, he felt a claw wrap around his mouth to muffle his screams. Other hands pulled his arms forcibly behind his back. Then a sack got pulled over his head. The tall guitarist felt his body getting dragged away and somewhere in between his trip from the bus to whatever his destination was, Jaska lost his consciousness.

 

\--

 

Jani could finally get some rest after the intense nightmare he had previous night. Before he went to sleep, he looked one more time out of the window of their bus before closing the curtains. He abruptly shifted in his seat as he swore he saw _something_ move in the forest.

Was he still paranoia or was this real? After all, the nightmares felt real and all musicians had brought a “souvenir” back from their dreams.

 ‘You saw it too?’, now came the voice of the blonde guitarist. Jani turned away from the window and found Olli looking at him.

‘Yeah. You think we should be concerned?’, the bassist asked his friend.

 ‘I hope not. But you can never be too sure. Let’s just close _all_ curtains, like previous nights’, Olli suggested and together they did just that.

When night fell the two musicians sat next to each other. Kapu and Marko slept in opposite chairs of each other. Jaska and Jari had settled in different areas of the bus.

 

 The bassist of the band got waken by a strange feeling.

A feeling as if he was _getting dragged_ over a rough surface. His tired eyes opened. It took him some time to take in the dark surrounding but soon he found out he truly _was_ getting dragged over the soil of a forest.

 His ankles are tied together and so are his wrists. He sees figures using a rope attached to his feet to move him around.

 He didn’t dare to alert these strangers but he gasped when he saw his fellow bandmate Olli getting carried by another abductor. He had the musician thrown over his shoulder. The small man seemed to be unconscious.

That’s when Jani decided to struggle free and alert his friend. He knew it was a stupid plan but he deemed it better than just letting it happen.

It was a difficult task and the harsh ground only made it more painful when the bassist wriggled around to escape.

Now the person who carried Olli halted and gestured the one who had taken Jani to stop as well.

Afraid, the bassist stopped his plans of escaping and stared with big, frightened eyes at his abductors. They all wore neat, black suits but there was something _off_ about them. Their hands seeme to be too pale for a normal human unless they were surprisingly albinos. But their skin. It was so smooth. It almost resembled plastic.

 Now the guitarist’s kidnapper turned his head in a twitchy way and Jani got to see a mask instead of a face. It was a big white and red cone mask. Although the design was simple and it didn’t resemble a face at all, the mask looked so threatening and the pointy design made the mask feel even more hostile.

Then the abductors ignored the bassist and they continued their walking. Jani accidentally hit his head against a stone on the ground and that’s when the world went black for him again.

 

\--

Still sleepy, Markus navigated himself to the toilet and when he sneaked back he noticed how Jaska, Jani and Olli had disappeared. Alerted he ran towards one of the windows and tried to look outside.

It was still pitch-black outdoors but he couldn’t see anything suspicious. But then again, this whole ghost town was suspicious on its own.

Kapu now searched for the drummer and the singer. In the front of the bus he heard a scream.

 ‘Jari!’, it was Marko.

The keyboardist stormed forward and found his best friend sitting on the ground with his hands in his hair.

 ‘I-, I couldn’t save him’, the blond man appeared to be in utter shock. He was trembling all over his body and Markus attempted to snap the singer out of it by touching him on the shoulders.

When Kapu gave a glare at the doors of the bus, he spotted three men in suits and cone shaped masks “ogle” the two remaining bandmembers in silence. It send unpleasant shivers down the bald man’s spine.

‘D- don’t we have some kind of weapons here? Something that could be used as weapons?’, Markus tried but the singer wasn’t reacting.

Kapu never thought the nightmares would manifest themselves in the real world but it was happening now and they needed to act upon it.

 ‘Marko! I need your help!’, the keyboardist shouted.

‘Oh, ok’, the singer stood up. ‘Wh- what do you want me to do?’, he asked.

 ‘Eh… let’s see if we can find something to use as a weapon. Then we’ll go outside and save our friends!’, Kapu said as if it was his plan all along, but truth was: he just improvised on the spot.

Marko knew but he didn’t have a better plan so he went along with it.

 Reluctantly they used a guitar and the bass guitar to defend themselves against the intruders.

 

‘I can’t believe we’re doing this’, Marko grunted but he really wanted to rescue his fellow bandmates. After all, he hadn’t been strong enough to save their youngest musician from getting abducted.

Both men were trembling when they set step outside the normally safe tour bus but even their safe haven wasn’t trustworthy anymore.

A thick mist had formed around them and Marko and Kapu had to stay cautious and look after one another.

 ‘Stay close, back to back’, Kapu commanded.

‘You got it.’

 ‘Something’s moving!’, Markus now exclaimed.

‘Where? AH!’, the singer let his eyes scan his environment but the mist got too thick and now someone or something was grabbing him by his ankle. He screamed.

 Kapu yelled when he lost sight of Marko.

He wanted to run but a strong smack against his head stopped him from doing so.


	16. A call in the night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More mindfuck. I assure you'll understand it (hopefully) at the end of this story!

Jaska’s head was aching. He felt something soggy against his face. He also felt something was suffocating. After he really got back to his senses, the guitarist realized something was covering his face. His hands found his face and he pulled the sack off his face. He was laying on the wet soil of the dark forest. His legs were wobbly when he crawled back up. Confused he took in his surroundings. There was a flashlight laying close to him. He picked it up and hoped the darn thing still worked.

 ‘Nice’, he exclaimed when a small ray of light got activated after he pressed the button.

Where in the forest was he? He never went outside the bus so he had no clue where to go or what to look for.

Then Jaska remembered he must’ve been abducted and that the perpetrators must’ve dumped him here all by himself. He bet all his friends got harmed too and he needed to find them before returning to the bus. The chance they were still there, was too small, the tall man assumed.

With no real plan, except looking for the other bandmates, he started walking. Subconsciously he licked his lips and tasted mud. His fingers brushed over his mouth and with disgust he felt the oily substance, some of his friends had experienced during their nightmare, on his fingers.

 

Then there was a sudden bang and it left the whole surrounding shaking, causing Jaska to fall onto the ground. The flashlight clashed against a stone and broke.

Now the guitarist could hear something in the distance. Was it music? If so, it was horribly distorted.

Unable to find another reference point, Jaska decided to look for the source of the audio.

 

\--

 

Olli had a nightmare. He was getting drowned in a sink by his evil clone. The musician managed to get free and that’s when he woke up. He felt heavy and now his eyes understood he was _underwater_.

Shocked, he tried to swim to the surface. He gasped for breath as he reached the top.

 ‘Olli!’, a familiar voice shouted at him.

The guitarist let his eyes wander over the black surface of the water to see the shore of the lake he apparently was in. On the bank, he spotted a figure.

 ‘It’s me! Jani! Get out of there? Can you swim?’, the voice shouted.

‘Jani! Oh my god! It- It’s you!’, Olli blubbered, trying to keep himself afloat. ‘I- I can still swim!’, he quickly added and started to swim towards the shore.

 The bassist of the band helped him back on land. Just like the guitarist, Jani’s clothes were soaked as well.

 As soon as Olli was completely on the dry land, his friend pulled him in a for very firm hug.

‘Oh god, Olli! I thought you might’ve drowned’, Jani sniveled. Olli could feel Jani’s fast beating heart.

 ‘Y- you were in the water too?’, came his shaky questioning voice.

The bassist nodded. ‘Yes. Don’t know how I got there, but I did. Suddenly I awoke from a feverish dream.’

 ‘S- same. Where… where are the others?’, Olli now wanted to know.

When he met Jani’s eyes, they looked sorrowful. ‘I have no idea. All I know is that we got abducted by men in suits, wearing cone like masks’, the bassist informed his friend.

 ‘Then we need to keep moving’, Olli insisted.

‘Indeed. You’ve caught your breath?’

‘Yes. But…’, the guitarist looked doubtful. ‘You have any idea where to look?’

Jani replied: ‘Ah, yes! I forgot to tell you about my nightmare before I woke up in the lake. I got blinded by a bright light. It woke me up. Not so long before I reached the shore, I saw light flickering in that direction.’ The taller man now pointed it out.

 ‘Guess we’ll go there, then’, Olli coughed.

‘Indeed. It’s our only guess at the moment because I have no idea where the bus is.’

 

\--

 

Marko was wandering through unknown forest when he got startled by a bang. He lost his wrapped his arms around the nearest tree to keep him from falling. He had just waken up in the scary woods. He remember he got dragged into the night by a stranger and after that it went blank in his mind.

The singer only remembered Kapu being with him and Jari already kidnapped. He felt incredibly guilty for not being able to save his friend, the drummer. He had simply frozen when those men snatched Jari away from him.

And then Kapu came to the rescue but they got separated. Luckily there was no mist in this part of the woods but it wasn’t less scary without it.

 The lead singer tried to orientate himself but he felt like he was walking in circles for minutes now.

The bang had emitted a strange noise and Marko decided to follow this “signal”. It was all he could do for now.

 He struggled through the forest. Some places were damp and the mud kept sucking onto his boots.

In the distance he saw something move. Alerted, Marko tried to sneak passed it. Now new mist began to form and the singer kept slowly spinning around to decrease a possible blind spot. He didn’t want to get ambushed again.

 He yelped when another bang got produced. This time there was nothing to hold onto and he bumped into something.

That something yelled in shock and when Marko turned around, he came face to face with the keyboardist of the band.

 ‘Markus!’

‘Oh god, Marko! You frightened me!’, Kapu exclaimed.

 ‘Same! But I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to’, Marko outed an awkward laugh.

Now Kapu was observing his friend closer.

 ‘What happened to your clothes?’, he wanted to know.

‘What do you- Since when am I wearing a cap?!’, Marko also seemed to be surprised. He suddenly was wearing different clothes.

Markus scratched over the painful bump caused by the captors, and grunted.

‘I have no clue what’s going on anymore. But this time, try to stay even closer to me!’

The singer nodded and without hesitating, he took a hold of Kapu’s hand.

 ‘Close enough?’, Marko smirked.

Kapu returned him a smile and nodded. ‘Yeah. Let’s find out where that noise is coming from. If the others are still al- if the others are out there, they’ll probably do the same right now.’

 Marko gulped at the mere thought of his other friends being dead. It couldn’t be. They had been through so much shit already.

 

\--

 

‘Where am I? Someone! Please, help me!’, Jari cried out after he regained his consciousness.

He was blindfolded and his arms were tied behind his back to a chair. Also his feet were tied to the thing he was sitting on.

Tears streamed down his face. He was in a lighted area but that didn’t make things more easy or comforting for the drummer.

 All of a sudden his blindfold got forcibly removed and Jari could see again. He was sitting in a shack and someone was walking away from him. From what the drummer could see, it was Jaska.

 ‘Wait for me!’, Jari sounded helpless as he pleaded for the guitarist to stay. Why would he leave him alone after getting rid of the drummer’s blindfold?

 Jari started to wriggle in his constraints. The rope cut his ankles and wrists painfully but he had to keep trying.

Eventually he fell with his chair onto the floor. The darn thing broke but it got Jari free.

As soon as he could stand on his own again, the drummer ran after Jaska. He caught up to him and grabbed him by the wrist.

 ‘Jaska! Why are you running away?’, the smaller man stammered.

The older man looked at him. He wore a cap and a vest. Jari didn’t dare to question the sudden change of clothing.

 ‘Didn’t you hear the bang? Didn’t you see the light? We need to go there!’, Jaska explained vaguely, wanting to continue his walking.

 ‘Why? What will we find there?’

‘Hopefully our friends. But we need to keep moving or the source will vanish and we’re left alone in the forest.’

 Now it came down to the drummer they were indeed in a forest.

Not knowing what else to do, he decided to follow the guitarist of the band. At least he wasn’t alone anymore.

 ‘Have you seen the men who abducted me?’

‘No. I have not. I’m sorry, Jari but we need to keep focusing on that light in the distance! Can you see it?’

 ‘Yes, I can.’

‘Well then, let’s not waste any more time!’


	17. Enter the Arena

Marko and Kapu were the first ones to arrive at an seemingly _not_ so abandoned barn. Sharp lights lit up the whole place. It was the source of the distorted music as well.

 ‘I- Is that one of our songs?’, Marko asked his evenly confused friend.

Kapu shrugged his shoulders, not too sure either. ‘You sure we’re going inside?’

 ‘I feel like we have no other option’, the singer replied.

Reluctantly the two musicians attempted to find the entrance of the barn. They didn’t want to get separated again so they stayed close to each other.

 ‘Here!’, Kapu remarked. There was a painfully obvious entrance but it was locked with some thick wood.

 ‘Help me, will you?’

Marko nodded and helped his friend pull the wood away from the doors. The wood was decaying and quickly broke after the two men tugged at it.

As soon as the wood had been removed, the heavy doors flew open and bright light shone onto the two musicians, almost blinding them on the spot.

 After both got used to the brightness, Marko and Kapu got shocked by the sight of the interior.

There was a large boxing arena and around it were people gathered. Seemingly all men were in neat, black suits with those unsettling cone masks to hide God knows what laid behind those masks.

 ‘Eh, maybe we should look for the bus, huh?’, Kapu chuckled nervously.

They didn’t get the chance however. Behind them appeared three other men and they picked the musicians up like they were feather light.

 They dragged them into the arena, tied them onto a chair and pulled a sack over their heads.

Kapu shouted and Marko yelled but they got ignored by the stoic crowd.

 

\--

 

The bassist and the blond guitarist were trying to locate the source of the light. Sometimes they managed to catch a glimpse of a quick flash in the distance.

 ‘There it is!’, Jani pointed out.

‘On our right!’, Olli exclaimed.

Together they crossed a small stream before they arrived at a barn.

‘You think we’ll find our friends in there?’, Olli gave his fellow bandmate a questioning look.

‘We can only hope. You got, eh, a stick or something?’, Jani was already looking for something that could be used as a weapon.

 ‘Are we going to fight?’, the guitarist sounded slightly scared.

Jani took a few sturdy looking sticks from the soil and handed one over to Olli: ‘I hope not but with a ghost town like this, you can’t be too sure!’

 The two musicians walked around the barn until they got greeted by the opened doors.

The bassist gulped and Olli gasped when they saw two figures tied to chairs in the middle of a boxing arena.

 ‘A- are that Ma-Markus and-’, Jani’s voice failed him and Olli only nodded in silence. Subconsciously he held tighter onto the sick in his hands.

 ‘Let’s go’, Olli now grunted, regaining some confidence. He moved forwards and Jani tagged along.

The mannequin-like people filling the place remained frozen but when the duo got too close to the arena, some men attacked them.

 Olli ducked right in time and hit one of the attacker’s legs who then collapsed on the ground.

Jani smashed his weapon into the second perpetrator’s mask. It didn’t have any effect however. The mask turned into goo and the bassist lost his stick.

 Soon the two friends got outnumbered and taken care off.

 

\--

 

Jaska wished he could feel hopeful when the audio source got closer to him but this whole place gave him the creeps. Who knew what he would encounter in the woods? Eventually he discovered the barn and ran forwards. He decided to sneak around this time.

 He neared the doors and tried to peek around the corner.

‘Jaska! Finally there you are!’, it was Marko and Olli speaking to him. The taller guitarist turned around and got greeted by his friends.

 ‘Let’s get you inside! Outside it’s too dangerous’, Olli muttered as he started to push his fellow musician out of the shadows and into the lights.

 ‘What is this all about?’, Jaska sounded forewarned but before he knew it, Marko and Olli knocked him unconscious.

 ‘Guess we’ll have him tied to a chair as well’, the singer muttered.

 

\--

 

Because Jari couldn’t keep up with the tall guitarist’s pace, Jaska had picked him up, swung him over his shoulder and marched towards the barn.

 ‘Where are we going?’, the drummer wanted to know but his friend didn’t give away any answers. He kept walking and walking until they found themselves at the barn.

Jari tried to look up as Jaska entered the building. The lights were bright, mannequin like men were standing around. They looked like clones and it freaked Jari out.

 ‘Jaska! Put me down!’, the younger man started to kick the guitarist but Jaska didn’t flinch. Eventually he climbed into the arena with Jari still over his shoulder.

 Finally he put the smaller man on a chair and it was then when Jari noticed five other people tied to chairs.

 ‘Ja-Jaska?’, the drummer stammered as he recognized one of those people to be Jaska. The man with the sack over his head yelled: ‘Jari?! Is that you? Oh god! Tell me you’re okay!’

 ‘What’s happening?’, the drummer now inspected the other four men. They were his bandmembers.

But who or what was this other Jaska doing then? Was he an enemy?

 ‘Cut the crap, Jaska and release us!’, Jari snapped at the guitarist who tied him to the chair.

‘I’m afraid I can’t do that yet. We have to wait for the others’, the man replied.

 The Jaska who had a bag over his head, now spoke up: ‘Who is that?’

‘It’s you who’s talking’, this “fake” Jaska commented.

 ‘Wait, what??’, Jaska in the chair stammered.

‘It- it’s true’, Jari breathed, ‘There’s a clone of you. I knew there was something off about that Jaska!’

The drummer dared to look at the clone with disgust.

 

‘J- Jari? Is that you?’, Jani woke up after he got hit on the back of his head. Just like his friends, except for the drummer, he couldn’t see anything at all.

 ‘It’s me, yes! Who else is awake?!’, Jari desperately wanted to know.

‘M- me’, came Kapu’s shaky voice. Marko confirmed his presence and soon Olli joined them.

‘Now shut the fuck up everybody! Looks like the men of the hour have finally arrived’, fake Jaska barked.


	18. Find a way to break the Fall

Finally the sacks got removed from the bandmember’s heads.

What they saw, shocked them. They weren’t alone anymore. They were accompanied by _doppelgangers_!

 ‘Wh-what’s this?’, Olli stammered terrified.

‘Please tell me this is a nightmare’, Kapu muttered as he stared at the clone in front of him.

Jari was trembling just like Jani. A voice cracked through the arena.

 ‘The time has finally come!’

‘Time for what?’, Marko dared to snap at the voice. A disturbed chuckle was now heard.

‘To fight to your silly deaths! You will entertain us! The Crowd!’, the voice announced. The stunned bandmembers looked around them and they still saw all the mannequin like men with cone masks to hide their true faces.

 Their evil counterparts were now releasing the bandmembers from their ropes and they stomped the chairs away so they wouldn’t be a further nuisance once they’d be fighting.

 

‘Now ready yourselves!’, the voice through the speakers commanded.

Everyone now looked at their lead singer for further instructions. Reluctantly he sighed: ‘We’d better to what the voice wants us to do. But we should try to cover each other. Look out for each other.’

 The others agreed.

‘Are you ready?’, the voice asked them but its tone was very threatening.

 ‘I am ready!’, Jaska barked at the voice, he was getting tired of this nightmare town.

‘Bring it oon!’, the bassist shouted at his clone who now smirked.

 Olli gave Kapu a look. He gave him a reassuring nod. ‘We’ve started this adventure together and we’ll finish it together’, he promised the guitarist.

 ‘Kapu and I are ready too’, the smaller man whispered to the singer.

Marko now gave his drummer a final look. The youngest bandmember nodded in agreement. Now the singer said out loud: ‘Ready when you are!’

 

The sound of a gunshot declared the strange fight was on.

Two “teams” rushed into each other.

 Jaska threw himself at his clone, surprising the other man. Olli clawed at his doppelganger who was trying to hit his leg.

 Kapu got attacked by his replica and fake Jari. The drummer noticed and jumped to his friend’s rescue by fighting his own evil “twin”.

 Marko was trying to defend himself from the many punches he received from fake Marko.

Meanwhile Jani had grasped onto his clone’s leg. He didn’t let go and he even bit in the man’s leg. His clone screamed in agony and started hitting the bassist’s head.

 

The fight was intense. Kicking, screaming and crying. Blood spatters here. Bruises there. Legs and arms entangled in all the wrong ways. There was also the nasty sound of cracking bones.

The boxing area became one bloody mess.

 

As time went on, both parties started to transform. Their skin became more grey, their eyes more sickish.

Soon it started to be impossible to distinguish the real bandmembers from the fake ones.

Even the “good ones” couldn’t tell their counterparts apart from the real. It made everyone fight for their own survival.

 Distorted music started to accompany the fight and it accentuated every hit, every slam.

There seemed to be no end to the horrible massacre.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cant' write fight scenes rip


	19. The Emptiness

Marko was experiencing everything. He saw it all happen. He could see himself fight against… well, himself. It all looked so meaningless.

 Both Marko’s seemed like two mindless drones fighting to end… to end what?

One would win. One would die and then? Would he really be set free after that? Maybe he would be turned into one of those mindless mannequin men as well?

 Marko screamed and tried to snap his clones out of it but they didn’t seem to listen. Which led Marko to another question: _where_ was he?

 Everything felt so like an out of body experience. It frightened the singer.

 

\--

 

Suddenly Jani became aware of his surroundings. Somehow he could see but not feel nor move.

He looked at an arena. He saw two men that looked like him but with different clothing, fight. They fought against each other and against other men that resembled his bandmates.

 Why could he not move?

‘Help me!’, he shouted but he was not heard. He wondered if he actually had a voice.

 

\--

 

‘Stop fighting your clones and start fighting the mannequins!’, Kapu cried out as he witnessed himself uselessly attack his clone and the other bandmembers’ clones. He wanted to step up to the arena and finish it all but he couldn’t. He seemed to be trapped in a strange body that didn’t feel like his own.

 Could it be...?

 

\--

 

The blond guitarist’s consciousness “awakened” after his evil clone smashed his head against the floor.

Suddenly he could see two Olli’s in the arena. One was laying on the floor, bleeding. The other was standing next to him, grinning satisfied of what he had done..

 What was happening?

Why could he see himself from this distance? How was it possible. But in this place, everything seemed to be possible, Olli bitterly thought.

 

\--

 

With pure horror, Jaska looked how the scene in front of him unfolded. He was stuck somewhere among the crowd of the creepy mannequin people.

 ‘Try to relax, Jaska. Try to _think_ ’, the guitarist tried to calm himself down from the hectic situation.

‘Good, there are two versions of me fighting in the arena. So how can I see them? Am I… Am I one of the mannequins?’

 He forced himself to look down. He was wearing shiny black shoes with fitting black pants. Finally the guitarist could feel some kind of body he was in.

 His arms moved stiffly but Jaska managed to look at his hands.

This couldn’t be real.

 

\--

 

The fight was still going on when Jari started to realize he was in fact not one of the two Jari’s in the arena.

He was somewhere else. He was _someone_ else. He started to realize he was somehow _watching_ this whole thing escalate.

The only thing that popped up in his mind was: the others, they need to know! We need to escape!

But how?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you understand what's going on here xD
> 
> If not, the real guys are actually the ones among the crowd of mannequin men.


	20. There's a solution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the next chapter :D  
> one to go!

Marko finally realized what was happening.

He was trapped inside a body that didn’t feel like his own. He had to escape. After lots of struggling with his inner self, he managed to look down at his feet. He wore the same suits as the Mannequin men. Was he… one of them?

With rusty movements he lifted his arms for he wanted to touch his face. As expected, something was covering the singer’s face. The substance that he felt was stiff and almost paper like.

He suspected he was wearing the creepy cone mask like the other men in this room. he should get rid of it as fast as possible but his fingers felt numb and heavy.

He pressed his hands against the mask in an attempt to break it. He gasped when some of his fingers got sucked into the mask that now felt like goo. The singer growled as he tried to pull his left hand out of the mask.

Quickly he stopped when he felt something crack. His heart started to beat faster as he realized the mask was glued to his face.

 ‘No, Marko. You  have to free yourself from this mask whether you like it or not. Whether you’re going to hurt yourself or not. But what matters most, is that you _don’t_ want to become one of those mindless zombies!’

 

He cried out when a part of the gooey substance got ripped of his face. Marko could finally breathe and really _see_.

He hoped all his friends would do the same.

 

\--

 

Jani _could_ move this time. Although his legs felt like lead, he could move them. He shuffled closer to the box ring. Step by step and it was so difficult and it looked almost impossible but he managed.

His eyes desperately looked around the room and then he found Marko. Their lead singer had freed himself from whatever was covering his face, probably the mask. He looked confused but also relieved.

The mask.

The bassist tried to move his hands up to his face but he simply couldn’t. He wanted to cry because he didn’t want to be consumed by the mask. He didn’t want to become a monster.

That’s when he fell on his knees. He was trembling and a wave of anxiety rushed over him.

 ‘No. No. This can’t be happening. This can’t be real. I need to escape!’

Jani wailed and started to loll his head and he got startled when the point of his mask hit the floor. It crushed. It gave the bassist an idea.

He tilted his head up and down. Faster every time in an attempt to crush the mask against the floor.

His motions became frantic and desperate. Crack one. Crack two. Crack three.

A few attempts later, Jani got exhausted and with his final strength he managed to throw his whole body against the cold concrete floor and with that, he smashed his mask to pieces.

He laid on the ground, tears blurring his sight but he was free now. His head was throbbing painfully and he swore he could feel some blood running down his cheek as well but at least he didn’t have the mask on.

 

\--

 

Kapu yelped when he saw one of the Mannequins smashing its head onto the floor multiple times.

He almost forgot to breathe when the keyboardist saw the Mannequin man go down and stay down. He wasn’t sure if it was one of his fellow bandmates or not.

 ‘I need to get remove this mask too before it completely consumes me’, Markus muttered to himself even though he wasn’t sure if he was talking or just thinking. His head twitched and he turned it so he could see the Mannequin next to him. It remained stoic and motionless.

Maybe he could use that to his advantage, Kapu thought.

 With lots of effort, he jerked his almost uncontrollable body so he faced the other Mannequin.

‘Can you hear me?’, the keyboardist shouted but no response from the Mannequin man.

‘Good’, Kapu leaned a bit back with his head. Why did it feel so heavy? And then he “nodded” forward so his cone mask clashed against the Mannequin’s mask.

He could hear a small crack. It worked! Markus “attacked” the other man again until a big part came off and one of his eyes got freed. The mask was sticking onto the keyboardist but Markus now got control over his hands back.

He ripped off several pieces off the mask. His fingers got cut in the process but that didn’t matter now. He should concentrate on removing every single piece of this cursed thing.

 

\--

 

The lead guitarist saw so much things happening at once. All the clones fighting each other in the arena, he saw Marko, he witnessed one Mannequin crashing down on the floor and not getting up anymore and he saw one Mannequin attacking another one.

What was going on?

Suddenly Olli thought he could hear someone call out to him. It was the voice of the singer.

 ‘Olli! Wake up! The mask! Get rid of the mask!’

Before Olli could process the command, he felt something getting pushed into his mouth. It felt like a very nasty marshmallow got shoved passed his lips. Now he got conscious about his own face being trapped in said mask.

Although it felt like pillows pressed against his head from all possible angles, the “pillows” felt threatening and suffocation.

Sweat started to form on the blond man’s face.

A soundless “help” escaped his lips. He had to fight the gag reflex and the feeling of getting suffocated.

 Then Olli felt something gripping onto his head. Hands.

It were his own hands. His fingers dug into the mask and he screamed when he was sure his fingers would break if he would tug any harder at the mask.

 ‘Come on, Olli! You can do it!’, Marko’s voice echoed somewhere in his mind.

It was all the encouragement Olli needed to pursue his actions to escape this hellhole.

When the now sticky mask came off, his cheeks felt like they were burning. His fingers felt sore and Olli coughed up some blood and the white marshmallow like substance.

Just as he fainted, he could sense someone approaching. Was it Marko? Or another freed bandmember? Please let it be some of the guys.

 

\--

 

The other guitarist in the meantime was having his own fight.

‘No way I’m turning into one of those fuckers!’ he snarled as he clawed at the mask that kept him from functioning like a normal human being.

 ‘D o n ‘ t’, an awful monotone voice spoke up. The tall guitarist looked over his shoulder and almost yelped when he saw a Mannequin “looking” right at him. For a split second, Jaska thought he could see the face laying behind that mask. A deformed, melted face. Is that what would await him, were he unable to escape?

 Quickly Jaska regained his angry posture and taunted: ‘Make me!’

His adversary took the challenge and jumped the taller man. The Mannequin man might be less strong as Jaska, but the darn fella was persistent.

 He beat and hit and slapped. Jaska hardly got the time to deliver a blow by himself.

It felt useless for the Mannequin didn’t seem to take any damage.

Reluctantly, Jaska’s head hit the floor and that hit made him realize something. The Mannequin was maybe stronger than expected. So, if Jaska could let the Mannequin attack his _face_ , he might be able to break the mask itself?

And so Jaska “gave up”. It didn’t seem to confuse the Mannequin for the enemy kept kicking and hitting Jaska’s mask.

Meanwhile, Jaska was gathering his last strength for which was hopefully the last blow.

As soon as his whole mask got pulverized by the Mannequin’s doing, Jaska crawled back up and said with a wide smirk: ‘Playtime’s over!’

 He really did put all his strength in that last smash. His fist hit the cone mask of his attacker and it threw the Mannequin back. Luckily for Jaska, the Mannequin man remained still. Did Jaska kill him?

 

\--

 

 Jari’s mask was consuming him quicker than expected. He kept slipping between being “awake” and being in a “coma”.

Somewhere in the distance he heard people calling out to him. People he knew once.

 ‘Jari! Jari!’

His consciousness snapped back to him when he felt two steady hands on his shoulders. Kapu and Marko were holding him. His friends were wearing the Mannequin suits. Both their faces were bruised.

 ‘Help me. Please’, Jari sniveled.

Now his friends were desperately tugging at the cone mask on the drummer’s face. Jari himself tried to help them but found his hands unable to do so.

 ‘Hang in there, Jari! Are you still with us?’, Marko shouted with tears in his eyes.

‘I’m still here’, Jari mumbled but felt himself falling “asleep” once more.

‘Jari, wake up!’, he felt a hit to his head, waking him up and this time he remained awake. Now he noticed how Kapu and Marko were accompanied by Jaska.

 ‘Someone get Jari’s hands on that mask too!’, the man commanded and so Jari could feel his hands moved.

As soon as they touched his own mask, he found some control in them. The drummer crooked his fingers and with ease they burst through the mask. Some pieces fell down and got in his eyes, causing Jari to blink.

Jaska, Marko and Kapu helped him but it was difficult.

 ‘Try to move yourself!’, Markus said and so the drummer tried.

It got easier and easier to peel away all the remaining mask pieces. After he got freed completely, he fell back from exhaustion.

 ‘Time to gather the others and escape this place’, Marko whispered to Kapu.


	21. Final destination?

Just as the six bandmembers escaped the haunted barn, the darn building went up in flames. They didn’t look back, however.

Their new goal was finding the bus and returning home.

Markus was carrying Jari. Jaska carried his unconscious fellow guitarist with him.

Jani was leaning heavily on the singer.

Olli woke up and looked around him. He got greeted by Jaska’s smile.

 ‘We made it, Olli. Everyone made it out alive’, the taller guitarist whispered as they wandered through the woods once more.

Sunlight got filtered through the leaves and all of a sudden those scary woods became less threatening. The mist had disappeared as well.

 Carefully Olli got put on the soil so he could walk by himself again.

‘What about Jari? Did he… make it?’ Olli carefully asked the keyboardist who still had the smaller musician in his arms.

 ‘He’s just exhausted, like all of us’, Markus reassured his friend.

 

The bandmembers didn’t know how they did it, but they found their bus. Much to their surprise, the vehicle was still intact. Markus walked around it several times, checking its state just in case.

Marko helped Jani and Jari inside in the meantime. The drummer finally woke up.

Once everyone was in the bus, they looked at each other. Everybody’s face was bruised one way or another.

Some fingers of Olli were broken and Jani had an ugly cut on his head.

 ‘Marko, did you call me back there?’ the blond guitarist wanted to know after each of them had calmed down. With the first aid tool kit he managed to bandage his damaged fingers.

 ‘I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. Everything felt so surreal’, the singer answered while shaking his head.

 ‘True. But it looks like we survived our trip to hell’, the bassist grinned.

‘You’re bleeding still’, Jaska remarked as he pointed at Jani’s head.

 ‘I’ve had worst these last days’, the other man chuckled a reply.

Markus now placed himself in the driver’s seat and nodded at his friends.

 ‘I think it’s time we get the hell out of here!’

Jari groaned but nodded. Everyone agreed.

 

The trip back was long as well and they took shifts with the driving. They didn’t want to stop somewhere and land in another cursed ghost town ever again.

 

‘So, are we still going on a new holiday or what?’ Jari wanted to know after they arrived in their good old studio.

 ‘I want to say yes to that but I have my doubts as well’, Marko muttered.

‘Maybe we should go to Hawaii or something. Anywhere but the woods’, Kapu joked but the rest liked the idea.

 ‘Yeah. Sun, beach and women’, Jani smugly commented.

‘Can’t disagree on that’, Jaska chuckled.

 ‘So, Hawaii it is?’, Olli wanted to be sure about their next holiday destination.

‘Sweet old Hawaii’, the drummer mused.

‘Let’s first see about the prices and then we can decide. But a real sunny country pleases me as well’, Marko nodded.

‘Good idea.’

  ‘Good plan.’

‘Let’s do this.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final destiantion [insert cool sunglasses emoji]


End file.
